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It'll be great if all of those proposals can be funded and they get off the ground, so to speak. But I wonder how many of them, in reality, will make it off paper. Considering the wider political and financial issues, it wouldn't surprise me if only half or even less of the proposals ever see the light of day. Look at the TPF...that was a must have and was going to do big things, but it got canned. I think the ESA canned the DARWIN telescope, or at least shelved it for some time. You also have to wonder if GAIA will get off the ground either. It must be frustrating for the scientists to come up with these great ideas only to have incompetent idiots generally stuff up the economy and such and make it impossible for them to see the fruition of their dreams. It's one of the reasons why you see a lot of scientist leave research and such to go to industry...it pays better and is (hopefully) more secure. Although these days, that isn't even a given.
But, if they can get these scopes up and running, I think it'll be a boon for science, especially astronomy.
What will be interesting is if there is any tech spinoff in the building of these scopes and whether it'll trickle down to us amateurs. I hope so.
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